Voters Approve Transportation Tax, Housing Bond, Pension Deal

Vote-counters are still working around the clock to tally last minute, provisional and mailed ballots. But preliminary results from Santa Clara County polls show important victories for housing, transportation and workers rights.

Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond, barely secured the two-thirds threshold to pass. The region-wide measure would fund housing for the homeless, disabled, military veterans and first-time buyers.

“We are thrilled with the results so far,” county Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who helped spearhead the Measure A campaign, said in a prepared statement.

So thrilled that @AforAffordable Measure A in @SCCgov is holding at 67.35% today, still ballots to count but our community is saying YES!

A countywide half-cent sales tax for transportation upgrades held a formidable lead with 70 percent of the vote. Measure B would drum up revenue for the Valley Transportation Authority to finish the BART extension to San Jose, improve local highways and upgrade public trains and buses.

The South Bay Labor Council’s “Opportunity to Work” initiative claimed more than 63 percent approval Wednesday—well beyond the simple-majority needed to pass. Measure E requires employers in San Jose to offer extra hours to part-time workers already on payroll before hiring new staff.

Seeing Measure F headed for a win prompted Mayor Sam Liccardo and police Chief Eddie Garcia to exchange a celebratory high-five Tuesday night. The ballot measure would restore city employees’ pension and healthcare benefits that got cut four years ago as part of a reform plan.

Thank you, San Jose voters, for showing a bitterly divided nation how to overcome divisions to work together to pass Measures A, B, F, & G

About 62 percent of voters approved Measure F, which proponents say will end a years-long political battle between the city’s elected officials and its public safety unions. Though the settlement reverses some of the reforms voters approved in 2012, it promises to still save the city $3 billion over the next three decades. In the short-term, it could also help the city fill vacancies in its police force.

Measure G, which stands to generate $13 million a year by upping the city’s business license tax for the first time in 30 years, held a strong lead with 65 percent approval Wednesday. Unlike the other business-related measure on the city ballot, this one garnered support from labor and business groups alike.

Measure G wins! “...we asked the mid- to large businesses...to pay their fair share, and the citizens of San Jose said 'yes'"

Measure M in Sunnyvale narrowly lost the simple majority needed to win, which would have vested residents with the final say-so anytime the city wants to sell public land or extend, renew, swap or transfer a lease. Measure N, also in Sunnyvale, was supported by 77 percent of residents and extends an existing utility tax to new communications technologies.

Santa Clara gave its City Council members a raise with Measure O while setting a two-term limit for office with Measure P. The city also approved Measure Q, which requires a four-fifths council approval to fill a vacancy, and Measure R, which requires a two-thirds vote from residents before the city sells public property.

Gilroy and Milpitas both approved setting urban growth boundaries in Measure H and Measure I, respectively. Morgan Hill’s Measure S proposal to cap the population at 58,200 passed with 78 percent of the vote.

Thats easy, just stop being a sanctuary city that’s how the Federal Government has been getting locale government to comply with every other stupid idea they have come up with in the last 8 years.
Just wait till they start raiding the pot farms again. Maybe they can bust all the local and state politicians under RICO.
OOOOh I like it!